Mini-blogs in Cameroon
This is a documentation of all the mini-blogs I wrote throughout my time in a village named Besongabang in South-West Cameroon in the year of 2014. This is the Anglophone region of the country, hence giving me the privilege to work and communicate directly with its people without barriers. I carried my own water need from my neighbour’s well daily, and really learnt efficient water using and reusing.
September 29
My name is 'White Man' here. Men and women, girls and boys call me white man. The children are epic. They will come running out from the house in group shouting 'White man! White man!' whenever I pass by.
In the beginning I was not very comfortable because 1. I am not white 2. I am not man 3. It sounds like an animal species. I mean i can easily imagine children running out shouting 'Hippo! Hippo!' when they see one.
But after a while, I know they are referring to all non-black as white, and I can just take it as a substitute to foreigner. This is not the first place I have been that children are extremely curious about foreigners. So now I take it easy. When they come out running shouting 'White Man', I shout back 'Call me Aunty!' 'White man!' 'Call me Aunty!' 'White man!' 'Call me Aunty!'
Nowadays when I pass by, they still come running out shouting. But more than half of them are shouting 'Aunty!'
Yes, I am slowly claiming my victory.
October 2
In Kenyan airport, I saw Bollywood movie dubbed in English first time in my life, reminding me of when i first saw Stephan Chow's movie dubbed in Thai. Then guess what is the most popular drama here? Dang dang dang dang......the FILIPINO drama! Guys are handsome and girls are pretty. After knowing I am from the region, they said to me "People there are so beautiful!" I nodded and added "Yes, in the drama". Nigerian movies are popular throughout the continent, so I was not surprised to find it here. But that day, when I stepped into my friend's house and saw him watching Once Upon A Time in China, the Wong Fei Hong series by Jet Li, which is exactly the kind of movie I grew up watching, I yelled in my heart "Holy shit~ We even share the same movie culture!"
October 3
First time meeting: "I love you. I want to marry you!" "Wait wait what? Do you know my name?" Such act is conducted by a range of people here, from a construction builder to a government delegate for education! So when they asked me how is it like in Malaysia, I immediately grabbed the chance and say: "the culture is very different. What you just did is considered very rude there. The girl might slap you or run away from you thinking you are crazy." Then my neighbour, a woman interrupted, "Really? But what he did is normal here. If you are interested, you ask. So how do you people there become couple?" "Mmm...We become friends first?" "No, no." She shook her head. "We don't do that here."
October 6
Their eyes can see through pitch black darkness, their hands can touch heating pots, their bare feet can step on stones and sticks on the forest ground, and their heads can carry amazing weight. When materials conditions improve, human senses and strength devolve. I must be one of the most devolved kind, my eyesight is bad even in perfect daylight, my skins swell with one mosquitoes bite, and my hands shiver in pain every time fetching water from well. It's really hard to convince myself that humanity is progressing sometimes.
October 7
Loud and upbeat music is accepted everywhere here
In cafes, shops, home...... and Funerals.
Yes, funerals, in which you eat, drink and listen to loud music (I believe we call this partying elsewhere). I have witnessed more than 5 funerals in the past two months. And my village looks like a never-ending carnival.
October 7
Food here is based on cassava, cow skin, dried fish, pepper, pepper and pepper. The staple food is fufu, which is cassava based and very time consuming to prepare. It does not look like anything I have eaten before but surprisingly I love them as they blend with the extra amount of pepper well. If you would like to eat a chicken, then you have to come with the skills of killing and plucking one because living chickens are the only sources. I almost forget how chicken tastes but I certainly remember how they look like running around the village everyday. Goats are cute here. Whenever they pass by my office, they will curiously look inside but when i make a movement, they will immediately run away. It is a bit hard to imagine them on my dinner plate. As a Malaysian, I learnt long time ago not to compare our food with others, especially in terms of diversity. We are a lucky bunch living on a lucky land surrounded by sea and fertile land, with a variety of distinctive food-based culture. When it comes to food, oh yea, I love my country.
October 8
First time meeting: "Your bag is nice. Give me your bag". The same has then occurred to my purse, my phone, my clothes, etc. This is the first ever country I have been where people ask me for things instead of giving me things to show hospitality. For some reasons they believe all white men are rich and rich are supposed to give them things for no reason. Luckily I still have neighbor and friends who constantly feed me without asking anything in return. And these people motivate me to continue my work here.
Oct 09, 2014 3:05am
In East Asia, people sing but are more shy to dance in public. In the west, people dance and more shy to sing in public. Here, they sing and dance, anytime anywhere.
October 10:
Talking with a history teacher "so what is taught in Cameroon history?" "The history starts when the land is first discovered by Europeans" "How about before that? I am sure there are some African civilizations?" "You mean like killing twins and cannibalism?" "...I mean all the archeological evidence and ancient African artifacts which Europeans are now keeping in their museums. There must be some great civilizations before that" "Well maybe there is no documentation." he shrugged. At least I found one probable root of dependency - education, unsurprisingly.
October 11
Army officer 1: "I can make pizza. I will make some pizza and bring you." " Wow it will be really great if I get to eat pizza in this place! " "What else do you people eat there?" "Well Americans eat lots of pizza but I am not from there. I haven't been to the US " Army officer 2: "oh too bad. America is great! Everybody loves America!" "..... from what I learnt about it, I can't say everybody loves it" "Really? Who is paying you here? " "I am a volunteer" "Who feed you? " " local ngo. Cameroonian" " Can you confirm?" "Of course" "I can't believe it but you say you confirm. America is the biggest country" "Not in terms of population or land sizes" "Its the biggest democracy!" "India is the biggest democracy" And of course I never get any pizza.
October 12:
Almost every third or forth person I met has contracted Malaria at some point during the three-month-period I have stayed so far. It's as common as cold and flu here. "Why are you not using mosquitoes net?" Most said "it is too hot to sleep in one!" One said "There is no mosquitoes in my house, I got them outside" "Why don't you protect yourself?" "We africans are strong. We are used to Malaria. It is nothing for us" "As far as I know, many Africans DIE of malaria. And you pay so much for the drugs everytime!" "That's true...still, we africans are stronger than you white men."
October 14:
While tanning products have no market here, guess what's the big thing in women fashion here? Dang dang dang dang! - the WIG, or synthetic hair. They came in a range of style, pattern and colour. Those of good quality can cost more than a hundred dollars! Every woman have a wig or two or more! Their natural hair is usually curly and rough hence difficult to do. Doing hair here means sitting down under the tree shade with the doer for literally one whole day. A hairdresser will use her bare hands to make patterns while intertwining wigs with hair. While my fellow countrymates in Malaysia are busy styling, colouring and fashioning their hair, I have had countless Africans and westerners expressing admiration towards my (and hence our) original hair. The former will say "how smooth they are" and latter will say"how black they are". Commercialization is about selling something you don't have and making you believe they are better, often also making you feel miserable about your original self. After all if you are so happy and content with yourself, how are they going to sell the product and make you consume more than necessary?
October 15:
My neighbor is a 25-year-old English literature teacher. When her little son was running around naked, crying, shouting and making a scene in her compound, I asked "so how many children do you want? Or is one enough?" Assuming she would be at least deterred at such moment. "Aihhhh is One enough? One cannot be enough! I want...let's say four" while she was saying this, her child came to her and was beating her repetitively. I nodded in amazement.
October 18
"How many children do you have? " "Three boys. I really wanted a girl. Girls are very helpful " "Ooo but I see your boys washing dish, fetching water and cutting firewood" "Yea I have to tell them so many times before they do one thing. If girls, I don't even have to tell, they will finish everything" The grandmother interrupted, "yesterday I was trying to catch a chicken to cook, so I shouted for people to come help but nobody came. If there are girls, I won't even have to shout and they will come. Now my chicken is lost and I have no time to look for it until next week"
October 19
Yesterday there was a big funeral happening opposite my house. So starting from the day before there has been loud music from early morning till late night. It was also raining heavily. So whenever I stepped out of my front door, I will be surrounded by urinating men in all directions facing me (as they intend to face away from the crowd opposite). What awkward greetings – flooding my front yard with urine.
October 30:
When I was preparing the computer class for primary school children the other day, I tried to set up the desktop unit, first unwrapped since donated four years ago. When I was plugging in wires into the Samsung Monitor, this came into sight. It was born 1 hour drive away from my house in Malaysia and 10 years after, we reunited 20-hour-flight away.
October 31
Today I woke up and saw these children cleaning my house compound, ordered by the headmaster, who a few days ago, to quote his exact words, said " I am very disturbed by your living condition". I hope this will not associate me with child labour, or worse child slavery, because I don't pay them. If anything, the two teachers in the picture should be responsible :P. Anyway, surprisingly, children, despite their playfulness, seems to be the easiest-to-mobilize group of people here. I said this because the village council (a group of village elders who have the authority to order village men to do anything) has been telling me that they will clear my compound for weeks by now
November 1:
I saw these primary school children from my neighbour village each carrying their own little blackboards. I felt that's cool so I asked to take their picture, which totally show their personality. The one on the right hand side was running away from me when I called her, and it took a long time to get her into the picture, whereas the one on the left hand side is an obedient girl who literally did whatever I told her, and was very happy to be taken picture of
November 8:
There are two kinds of beautiful moments here. 1. The everyday different sunset colour following the changing cloud shapes. 2. The moment when a local child shouting 'aunty!', running towards you and giving you a big hug. Even a stone heart will melt.
November 18:
Today, I was guilty of utilizing gender discrimination to my advantage. I was buying grilled meat in town, my first one after months. " You should buy me mine." A guy beside the seller, whom I met for the first time said. "Why?" "...We can be friends no?" He was a bit surprised by my question " No.1 I am a guest in your country. No.2 I am a woman. Who should buy who?" " She is right" said the seller. " You are right!" said the guy. "Give her more meat and count on me" The seller gave me a thumb-up. So i got my extra meat for dinner.